The City of Atlanta, Ga., with a consortium of local private and public organizations, is hosting a one-year Internet of Things (IoT) technologies project aimed at meeting food demands in urban areas, through the innovation of technology startups. The IoT.ATL AgTech Challenge has begun accepting applications from IoT companies to spend a year developing solutions for food resilience in Atlanta, with the aim of identifying technologies that could scale throughout Atlanta and to other cities.

The group will accept applications from startup companies through Nov. 2, 2018. The project is being sponsored by the city, along with Invest Atlanta, the Metro Atlanta Chamber, the Atlanta BeltLine, Georgia Power and agriculture equipment manufacturer AGCO Corp. Six applicants will be selected to participate in the pilot, each of which will be offered a 20-foot trailer as a living lab on the Atlanta BeltLine (a 22-mile loop of walking and biking trails connecting the city's 45 neighborhoods). The containers are provided by AGCO.

Cynthia Curry

The challenge's goal, according to Cynthia Curry, the Metro Atlanta Chamber's IoT ecosystem expansion director, is to accelerate and support urban agricultural technology (agtech) solutions to benefit economic development, cultural expression and health, especially among low-income residents and families. That means finding ways to provide fresh produce and other food throughout the city, including in areas considered "food deserts," in which residents lack easy access to healthy food.

The selected proposals could provide environmental benefits and yields increases, such as by growing more produce with fewer resources, or by redefining land and space usage—via vertical farming, for instance. They should also be scalable solutions. Additionally, they could provide greater transparency in food production, Curry says, adding, "The possibilities are endless, and we won't know what agtech innovation will result until we evaluate the applicants."

IoT systems already on the market include soil and environmental sensors, weather stations and cameras to track conditions in fields, such as the over- or under-use of water or chemicals, or the presence of pests, as well as livestock sensors to monitor the health, activity and yield of animals. However, no animal-based solutions are being used as part of this challenge.